My Turtle Ate the Pattern

Do you think that works as an excuse? Probably not. Too bad I don't have a dog to blame stuff on.

Yesterday was December 1 and my grandmother ought to have a sweater at this point. Sadly, that bump in the road I hit a few weeks ago turned out to be more of a detour. I lost my momentum entirely and my attention to the sweater was largely limited to moving it from one surface to another.

Here it is as it appeared last night. Pretty pathetic. I'm still not even finished with the yoke increases. There is good news though. I worked on it last night and the night before and I seem to be finally finding my groove with it. I am resetting my personal NaKniSweMo clock and my new goal will be to finish it before the new year. Totally do-able... as long as I don't get distracted by other stuff.

It'll be no small feat to stay focused on grandma's sweater because I am consumed by startitis. I recently tried to apply a little organization to the stash. There are a few sweaters worth of yarn in there and I moved them to their own home. The novelty stuff and many random odds and ends were packed away for safekeeping in a spot that is a bit more out of the way. As I went through the stash all the plans I had flashed before me and I just want to attack them all right now. There are just so many patterns popping up all over and they are so tempting. I'm resisting the urge to cast on for everything at once but, since I finished Stinkette's Cowl Sunday night i felt ok casting on for more baby stuff. Knitting for little girls is just too much fun to stop.

Another current distraction is amigurumi. I got a book, Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet, a while back and it's full of little figures that are just adorable. There is no danger that I'll become a real crocheter but making these ami is really easy and fun. The first one from the book was a mini turtle for Stinkerbelle. You can't really tell from the picture but it's a little fuzzy from love. I'm not sure it's my best work but Stink is very happy with it.

Now I'm working on big sister/little sister penguins for my niece who just became a big sister. Sadly, I ran out of black yarn so I'll have to wait for the rest of it to arrive before finishing. So far it's coming out really well. The instructions in the book are really clear.

The only issue I have with making these ami is the yarn I chose - KP Shine. It's really soft and looks great but boy does it ever get fluffy. As I work with it little tufts of yarn fuzz fly around me. I'm not sure how it would be for knitting but for crocheting it's not exactly great.